The Legacy of Solomon

The Temple of Jerusalem was razed to the ground by the Roman Titus in 73AD, not a single stone was left standing, its sacred treasures were looted and triumphantly paraded in Rome and the city’s people massacred and carried off into slavery. Today the Temple Mount is the Haram esh-Sharif, the second most holy site of Islam, where the Temple is believed to have once stood by Jews and Christians alike, is controlled by the Muslim Waqf. All archaeological research or excavation is strictly forbidden to the chagrin of the Jews and the site has become a source of conflict between Jews and Muslims provoking the Second Intifada. Pat O’Connelly, an Irish American writer, meets Isaac de Lussac, an obscure biblical archaeologist, who believes he has discovered the solution to the enigma of the Temple, building his theory on the work carried out by the Palestinian Survey Fund founded in the 19th century by Queen Victoria’s Royal Engineers.